The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine.

Let a man once overcome his selfish terror at his own infinitude, and his infinitude is, in one sense, overcome.

To be interested in the changing seasons is, in this middling zone, a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

Many possessions, if they do not make a man better, are at least expected to make his children happier; and this pathetic hope is behind many exertions.

Music is essentially useless, as life is.

Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.

The more rational an institution is the less it suffers by making concessions to others.

Men become superstitious, not because they have too much imagination, but because they are not aware that they have any.

The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk.

The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.